Setdart brings together a selection of selected lots in painting and sculpture, ranging from the most cutting-edge artists of nowadays (like Damien Hirst), to key names from the 20th century (Picasso, Dalí, Chillida …) and from the late 19th century (Sorolla).

The collection embraces a diversity of movements and styles. On the one hand, we have the work of the emblematic figure of the renovation, the constructivist tradition, Joaquín Torres García with his “abstract composition” from 1942, an oil painting from his last period (see lot 35130766), referenced in the raison d’être of the Uruguayan artist. From Eduardo Chillida, another figure who from another perspective renewed the minimalist and constructivist heritage, a collage dated 1967 can be purchased (lot 35217448), from the Maeght gallery. The famous sculptor always considered paper as “the first thing an artist has access to, the way to enter an art territory”. In his collages, he made the most of materials, even using burnt paper as a method of artistic expression, thus recalling the oxidized tonality of the materials he used in his sculptures.

Among those who innovated in the field of pop art by advancing postmodern solutions, it is worth highlighting Manolo Valdés, for whom Setdart auctioned the magnificent oil on burlap “Portrait of Henry VIII” ( 35185320 ). The portrait that Hans Holbein made of the monarch was here reinterpreted by Valdés, submitting it boldly to a painstaking process of plastic purification.

By Damien Hirst, one of the most prominent representatives of the Young British Artists, Setdart puts out to tender a silver sculpture (“Purity, The Dream is Dead”, 2007, lot 35168315), in which his interests are synthesized: the ephemerality of existence, vanity, anatomical models from Natural History… This sculpture shows “two halves”: the external one, the internal one with the organs of the body in view of the spectator. The young woman appears standing on a base, advancing with a determined stride, and wrapping her arms around her own body, keeping her profile and looking straight ahead. The silver work has been taken care of to the maximum. This striking work was presented at the White Cube in London (England) in 2007, going on sale again at the Sotheby’s Room in the same city in October 2011. As usual, a series of works were made based on the initial model, of a very limited and very careful edition.

Picasso’s bullfighting included in our next auction of select lots was made by the genius from Malaga in Vallauris, after having attended a bullfight in Nimes with André Castel, to whom he dedicated this drawing resolved with an energetic pulse. In the lot 35217417) , Picasso did not limit himself to applying the ink in black using a brush, but he impregnated his own fingerprints in dye to later apply them on the paper.

A bronze “Sant Jordi” by Salvador Dalí (35053101) and a “portrait of a gentleman” by Joaquín Sorolla (35130558) are also included in our upcoming auctions of outstanding pieces, whose online gallery we invite you to visit.